Reporters were not to blame for deleting the mobile phone messages of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, new evidence suggests

The News of the World was not to blame for deleting the mobile phone messages
of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler and thus giving false hope to her
parents that she was still alive, new evidence suggests.

The phone hacking scandal spiralled out of control after it was alleged that
reporters had hacked into the schoolgirl’s phone and deliberately deleted
messages. The revelation in July provoked public outrage and a political
furore because Sally and Bob Dowler had been given hope that their daughter
might still be alive after discovering on March 24, 2002 that messages had
been deleted. Within days of the claims the News of the World was closed.

However, new evidence provided by Surrey police as part of a civil case by
hacking victims against News International, publisher of the tabloid (and of
The Sunday Times), has revealed that the News of the World did not, in